Lentorama 2010: Two Millennia of Pointy Hats

Day 38: Gregory XVI (1831-46)

Gregrory, a Benedictine monk, gained early notice for his philosophical and theological works, leading to a variety of jobs ranging from being vicar-general of his order to brokering a peace deal between Armenia and the Ottomans to amending an agreement with the Dutch to protect Catholic Walloons. His election to the papacy was a surprise, coming after the leading candidate was vetoed by the king of Spain and a deadlock between the next two leading candidates. Gregory would be the last pope elected who was not a bishop at the time of election.

During his long reign, Gregory proved to be against any hint of modernization or liberalism, backing royalists and republican encroachments on the Papal States. He even went to far as to oppose railroads and gas lighting, seeing them as ways the middle class could expand business, make more money, and thus gain more power that would likely support further modernism. Not surprisingly, the combination of political unrest and reactionary thought did not sit well with the locals, and insurrection in and around the Papal States was a constant threat.